Oriel College Provost Neil Mendoza to receive life peerage

Neil was nominated by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and will become a member of the House of Lords once the induction process has been completed.

Neil was appointed as a Non-Executive Board Member of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in 2016, the same year he became Commissioner of Historic England. In May this year, Neil was appointed as the UK’s first Culture Commissioner to support the recovery of the Arts and Heritage sectors from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this post, Neil took a lead role in the creation of the £1.57 billion support package, announced in July, which will support and protect Britain’s cultural, arts and heritage institutions as they battle to recover from the terrible impact of the pandemic.

Neil is also currently co-chairing an Expert Advisory Panel for the DCMS and UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council Joint Research Project. The Joint Research Project seeks to explore and demonstrate the role of innovation, collaboration and participation in shaping cultural experiences during the current pandemic, and to provide an evidence base to inform cultural recovery, renewal and future growth. Alongside co-chair Professor Andrew Thompson, Executive Chair of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Neil will bring together leaders from across the arts, cultural, creative and HEI sectors to guide, review and report on the subsequent findings to provide an evidence base that informs cultural recovery, renewal and future growth, and make recommendations for future actions.